The supplemental educational services (SES) provision of No Child Left Behind introduces a federally mandated after-school tutoring intervention in schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress. This article examines market dynamics in relationship to the law's goals of expanding access to and improving the quality of after-school…

There are over 200 identified community based indicator projects in the United States. This paper reviews the factors that contribute to the success and failure of community indicator projects and discusses the types of desired outcomes that communities are trying to achieve. Both organizational and political factors contributing to the success of…

The research study examined whether a difference existed between the reading achievement scores of an experimental group and a control group in standardized reading achievement. This difference measured the effect of systematic oral reading fluency instruction with repeated readings. Data from the 4Sight Pennsylvania Benchmark Reading Assessments…

Educators have long sought to define quality in education. With the proliferation of distance education and online learning powered by the Internet, the tasks required to assess the quality of online programs become even more challenging. To assist educators and institutions in search of quality assurance methods to continuously improve their…

The medical director of a child guidance center is starting a new treatment program. The director has paid for three social work therapists to attend a cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) workshop to the population of poor, Spanish-speaking teens. However, the medical director struggles with how to bring the principles of evidence-based practice…

This report examines a Massachusetts pilot program for quarterly benchmark exams in middle-school mathematics, finding that program schools do not show greater gains in student achievement after a year. But that finding might reflect limited data rather than ineffective benchmark assessments. Benchmark assessments are used in many districts…

School-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS) has been implemented in more than 4,000 schools as a means of addressing problem behavior in a systemic fashion. Preliminary outcomes (e.g., office discipline referrals, suspensions) indicate the effectiveness of SWPBS in decreasing school-wide behavior problems and creating a positive school climate.…

When accurately assigned and administered appropriately, testing accommodations help ameliorate the effects of personal characteristics that limit access to critical information and prevent a person from demonstrating his or her true abilities in the tested domain. Inaccurate assignment or misuse of accommodations may counteract the benefits of…

Findings from meta-analyses of outdoor education, psychotherapy, and educational innovations are presented to help determine the relative efficacy of adventure therapy programs. While adventure therapy effects are stronger than those of outdoor education, they are not nearly as strong as those of individual psychotherapy. Benchmarks are derived…

Which comprehensive school reform programs have been proven to help elementary and secondary students achieve? To find out, this review summarizes evidence on comprehensive school reform (CSR) models in elementary and secondary schools. Comprehensive school reform models are programs used schoolwide to improve student achievement. They typically…

The "2011 State Preschool Yearbook" is the newest edition of our annual report profiling state-funded prekindergarten programs in the United States. This latest "Yearbook" presents data on state-funded prekindergarten during the 2010-2011 school year as well as documenting a decade of progress since the first…

The primary purpose of the study was to identify successful electronic and manufacturing engineering programs at two-year colleges that Northeast Community College (a pseudonym) programs can be benched marked against. The project examined two-year college programs for increased enrollment and the number of graduates for the academic years 2000 to…

This report examines the availability and quality of predictive validity data for a selection of benchmark assessments identified by state and district personnel as in use within Mid-Atlantic Region jurisdictions. Based on a review of practices within the school districts in the region, this report details the benchmark assessments being used, in…

The four reports contained in this document cover the first phase of the Apprenticeship Training Materials Clearinghouse project, which is being conducted at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon. The interim evaluation report assesses phase 1 of the project by listing a series of 17 bechmark questions and providing answers to each. Attached to…

Traditionally, education in Scotland has been viewed as a national service that is locally administered. This research casts new light on that relationship between the Scottish Executive and local authorities by drawing on evidence from an evaluation of the implementation of the additional support staff element of the Teachers' Agreement which…